Monthly Archives : August 2015

Ten days ago we reported an announcement by Cold Spring Records on their Facebook page that they’d teamed up with CRASS to release a series of live albums by the Essex anarcho-punk legends. The announcement was accompanied by a lengthy statement by band founder Penny Rimbaud.

Vive Le Rock! now presents a response to the news by Crass vocalist Steve Ignorant….

I’d just like to say that I am not, have never been and as far as I’m concerned, never will be affiliated with Cold Spring Records. I have not endorsed the releases and Crass certainly hasn’t. The statement Cold Spring put out on facebook was totally misleading and mis-represented both myself and Crass.

I don’t object to bootlegs, they’ve always been a part of the world I move in, usually produced out of necessity as the official release may be too expensive to import etc., but I do object to being made to look as though I’m officially endorsing something – which then stops it being a bootleg! So now because of all this nonsense if I say I don’t want it released I’m being a selfish bastard, and if I say ok release it then I’m agreeing with all this nonsense. Damned if I do and damned if I don’t.

If Cold Spring Records have a conscience they’ll know the right thing to do.

Legendary London rockers TEN BENSON are set to make good on their long-awaited return with the release of a new single in September!

The track is accompanied by this video by film director Mark Locke (UNKLE, PIXIES, DINOSAUR JR etc).

‘Mud Man’, self-produced and mixed by Anthony Chapman (ARNDALES, COLLAPSED LUNG), is available to download through Ditto Music from 11 September.

Ten Benson recently played their first London show for five years at The Lexington and made an appearance at the Supernormal Festival in August.

Critically acclaimed and ever changing, Ten Benson first came on the scene at the end of the last century with the release of their debut single ‘The Claw’ in 1997. Since then they’ve released five albums and toured extensively, but over the last few years have been on a very long sabbatical undertaking different projects.

More details of their recording plans and live dates are set to be announced very soon.

LA punks FIDLAR return with their second album next week and follow it up with a bunch of European shows in November. They’ve also just unveiled a brand new video for the track ‘Drone’.

Cleverly titled Too, the band’s second album comprises twelve tracks recorded over a two-week stint in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce.

Says singer/guitarist Zac Carper: “We could have made record number one again… but instead we decided to challenge ourselves and admit that we don’t know everything. Up until this point we had recorded everything ourselves, so working with a producer taught us so much. I didn’t want to make a standard rock record. The goal for this album was to think outside the box and I think Jay really helped us do that.”

Having already played Download and a show at London’s Heaven – which sold out in 3 hours! – FIDLAR play Reading and Leeds this weekend, before returning for a full European tour in November. Catch them at….

Doing their best to keep the ailing spirit of Soho alive, London powerpop-punk quartet ROLE MODELS have just issued their debut album through Glunk Records.

The Go-To Guy was recorded in London and Berlin and features guest appearances from MICHAEL MONROE BAND members Rich Jones and Sam Yaffa.

Fronted by guitarist and singer Rich Rags (formerly of London pop-punk legends THE LOYALTIES, who also featured Jones), the Role Models line-up is completed by Loyalties drummer Simon Maxwell, guitarist Nick Hughes and RED DONS bassist Daniel Hussayn.

Resplendent in a sleeve depicting the pool-room of the much-missed Soho hangout The 12 Bar Club, The Go-To Guy is available now from Glunk Records.

Reunited 80s garage-rockers THE PANDORAS arrive in London next week for their only UK date as part of a European tour.

They play The Shacklewell Arms, Dalston on Saturday 5 September with support from OH! GUNQUIT and THE FRANKLYS. Buy tickets from the Dirty Water website.

Part of the same Hollywood scene that spawned THE BANGLES, THE THREE O’CLOCK, THE RAIN PARADE and THE DREAM SYNDICATE, the band enjoyed a fluid line-up during their eight-year career, recording their debut album with BOMP! supremo Greg Shaw, and going on to sign with Restless, Rhino and Elektra. The band’s career was brought to a tragic halt, however, when frontwoman Paula Pierce died suddenly from a brain anyeurism.

Bassist Kim Shattuck, who went on to find success with THE MUFFS and PIXIES returns to fill Pierce’s role, alongside Melanie Vammen, Karen Blankfeld and new member Hilary Burton.

Londoners are in for a treat this weekend as URBAN VOODOO MACHINE headline a one-day free festival on Sunday afternoon.

The UK’s favourite bourbon-soaked gypsy blues bop’n’stroll band will be taking the stage at Clerkenwell Festival in Spa Fields Park off Exmouth Market, Islington this Sunday 30 August. Kicking off at 1.30pm until 5pm, also on the bill are KING SALAMI & THE CUMBERLAND 3, 9 TON PEANUT SMUGGLERS, LIL’ LOST LOU, FLORENCE JOELLE and RUN DEVIL RUN plus more acts to be announced.

There’s also a rock’n’roll jumble sale and a dog show! A good time is guaranteed!

THE MISSION are bringing together all their singles and their B-sides on one double-disc compilation album.

The appropriately-titled Singles A’s & B’s collects the tracks from all fifteen of the band’s charting singles in the same place for the first time ever. Comprising 36 tracks in all, the compilation charts the band’s history, following Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams’ 1985 departure from THE SISTERS OF MERCY and their first two singles for Birmingham’s Chapter 22 label – ‘Serpents Kiss’ and ‘Garden Of Delight’ – and subsequent releases for Phonogram up to ‘94’s ‘Afterglow’. The album features rare covers of Neil Young’s ‘Like A Hurricane’ and The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ plus a number of previously unreleased edits.

Singles A’s & B’s is released on 29 September through Universal, but you can pre-order it here.

Punks will be descending on Derby for the ANOTHER WINTER OF DISCONTENT – NORTH festival next month.

Held over four days from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September, the first AWOD festival to take place outside London will feature more than thirty bands on two stages systematically tearing the roof off Derby’s Hairy Dog venue.

Headliners DISCHARGE (Thurs), CONFLICT (Fri), THE MEN THEY COULDN’T HANG (Sat) and LOS FASTIDIOS (Sun) are joined by OI POLLOI, DEADLINE, LION’S LAW, THE ENEMY, LOST CHERREES, ICONS OF FILTH, THE CRAVATS, ED TUDORPOLE, THE SYSTEM, EASTFIELD, LAGAN, THE YALLA YALLAS, DISORDER and loads more.

Day tickets (£12/15) and full weekend tickets (£48) are available here.

Together, well, since birth, the brothers played their first gig supporting FISHBONE in 2011 and have since gone on to play SXSW, Afropunk, Coachella and Download festivals. Having previously released two EPs, they recorded Dark Black Makeup in Sheffield with producer Ross Orton.

Young Cornish garage-punks THE BLACK TAMBOURINES are to unleash their second album next month.

Having reissued the band’s debut last year on expanded CD, Easy Action are to release Freedom on 4 September on CD, vinyl download and cassette.

Scorching out of Falmouth in 2010, The Black Tambourines initially released their debut album in 2013, quickly identifying them as leaders of a new wave of Cornish acts. The following year saw them touring the UK and Ireland with THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN as well as playing the Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Great Escape festivals, the latter a guerilla gig from the back of a lorry!

Having made their mark on Manchester Psych Fest in June, the band go on to play The Brewhouse, London (22 Aug); the End Of The Road Festival, Dorset (4-6 Sept); and a homecoming show at Falmouth’s largest venue, The Princess Pavilion on 30 Oct.

Legendary punk label ORK RECORDS are about to have their complete recordings made available in one handy package!

Ork Records: New York, New York is being released by archive reissue label The Numero Group and charts the label’s history across two CDs or four vinyl LPs, complete with a 190-page deluxe hardback book and a bonus 7-inch single featuring two previously unreleased tracks by THE FEELIES.

Regarded as the world’s first punk label, Ork Records was founded in 1975 by Terry Ork, a fugitive from Andy Warhol’s Factory set who, as manager of TELEVISION, started the label to release their debut single ‘Little Johnny Jewel’. The label went on to release ‘Blank Generation’ by former Television bassist RICHARD HELL, along with singles by LESTER BANGS, ALEX CHILTON, CHEETAH CHROME, RICHARD LLOYD, MICK FARREN, CHRIS STAMEY & THE dBs, THE IDOLS, THE ERASERS and more.

The Numero Group previously issued a box-set of Ork 7-inchs for this year’s Record Store Day in April.

RHODA DAKAR, frontwoman of legendary 2Tone band THE BODYSNATCHERS is set to release what is effectively their belated debut album, celebrating their 35th Anniversary.

Released through Phoenix City/Cherry Red on 6 November, Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers includes brand new recordings of songs only heard live, on live bootlegs and on John Peel sessions.

Formed in 1979, The Bodysnatchers signed to 2Tone after only their second gig, hitting the charts with the singles ‘Let’s Do Rocksteady’ and ‘Easy Life’ and appearing in the 2Tone movie Dance Craze. The band split in 1981, but Rhoda was recruited to front Jerry Dammers’ SPECIAL AKA, appearing on the In The Studio album, releasing the harrowing ‘The Boiler’ single and co-writing the anthemic ‘Nelson Mandela’.

Guesting with MADNESS and becoming an in-demand club DJ, Rhoda recently returned to the studio with Lynval Golding and Horace Panter of THE SPECIALS, alongside members of PAMA INTERNATIONAL, THE SIDEWALK DOCTORS and INTENSIFIED to record Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers.

You can pre-order Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchershere. The first fifty pre-orders will be signed by Rhoda.

UK label COLD SPRING have announced that they’re hooking up with CRASS for a series of archive live releases by the anarcho-punk pioneers. Released on vinyl and CD, they’ll also be available to download for free. Titles and schedules will be announced shortly.

Originally coming together in Essex in 1977 and kickstarting the early-80s anarcho-punk scene, Crass’s legacy has been the subject of much heated debate among fnas and former members in recent years, with vocalist Steve Ignorant’s decision to perform the band’s Feeding Of The 5,000 live in 2007, followed by the back catalogue release of The Crassical Collection in 2010.

Read a statement by the band’s Penny Rimbaud on the Cold spring releases below…

THERE’S A PLACE FOR US, A TIME AND A PLACE…

Thomas Jefferson once said in a letter written in 1813: ‘If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me’.

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In a perfect world there’d be no yours or mine because everything would be shared or, at most, swapped in fair exchange. Why’s that? Because in the perfect world we’d realise that there’s no such thing as ‘them and us’, no separation between self and other. In short, we’d be as one and we’d behave as one. Then how do we go about creating this perfect world? Firstly, I guess, by realising that apart from the trials, tribulations and conflicts that we humans bring to it, the world is perfect, silently getting on with its own business without thoughts either of profit, a gaggle of shareholders ever ready to justify corporate avarice, or an army to force the issue. In realising the above and taking it to heart, we’re already halfway there.

When I was a child, my father frequently regaled me with tales of what he called the ‘real world’, demanding that I abandon my youthful waywardness in order to find a place in it. Without a hint of irony, he told me that unless I conformed, I’d never get a proper job. At that time his proper job was as a board member of British Rail, seeing that the trains ran on time which, given the free-flowing nature of the temporal world, they more often than not didn’t. In short, he was setting before me a thoroughly undesirable and unworkable model existence. Coupled with that, he’d often tell tales of a war he’d helped win in order that I should be free which, considering his frequent and rude interventions on my youthful self-styled freedom, seemed entirely contradictory.

The Native Americans considered the land in the same manner as we consider the air; it was beyond enclosure and ownership. Equally, wisdom was shared as ‘common sense’ rather than coveted as intellectual property; the land, water and air were a reflection of that commonality and an inspiration to those who maybe didn’t quite get the message. If modern day capitalists could market air, you can rest assured that they would do so. They’ve done it with the land and water, but when it comes to air, they simply pollute it, thereby in some cocked-up way possessing it – they pocket the profits of pollution while we suffer the consequences, and sod climate change which, not so coincidentally, they greatly profit by too.

Yours? Mine? Anyone’s? No one’s? Intellectual property? Copyright? Mine all mine, but taking into account the transient nature of our existence, can any one person truly hang on to anything within what is commonly referred to as the ‘real’ or ‘material world’? Can an idea be owned when largely it is culled from the pool of ideas to which we are exposed every day by self and others? In any case, why should we seek to possess ideas? In that respect, it’s like love, for isn’t possession the very antithesis of love, an ossification of ideas? Why do we seek to own the object of our love or cosset the product of our ideation? Why seek to consummate and contain them, thus depriving them of their natural freedom? A caged songbird is deprived of flight, deprived of freedom and everyone apart from its owner is deprived of its beauty, albeit one which will inevitably diminish under the deprivations of captivity. In this sense, its captivity is also ours. All forms of enclosure, be it animal, vegetable or mineral, deprive us of our fundamental right to exist free of imposition. Then clearly, if we seek that freedom, we must start by attempting to minimise on the impositions that we place on others and thus, conversely, upon ourselves. In other words, never mind the Rolex, it’s a manacle to time, and time is a manacle to place and, further, both are no more than illusory constructs.

The public domain is a funny place to be. My mother used to talk about public face and private armpit, the armpit being where we stored up our personal secrets. There are things which can be said ‘out there’ and others which, if only out of circumspection, are better left unsaid, at least that’s what she used to tell me. But how much damage do we do through keeping things to ourselves? Is this not the root of the unresolved issues that keep us at each other’s throats or, at the very least, so separate from each other?

Amongst many other things too innumerable to mention, John Lennon is remembered for his aphoristic ‘life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans’ which, in fact, was first coined by cartoonist, Allen Saunders, when Lennon was still only dreaming of the stardom that gave him the unquestionable right to claim creation of the planet itself, after all, ‘war is over if…’. Nonetheless, as I see it, the saying has deep roots in Taoist philosophy from which by some circuitous route it must have emanated. So who owns what? Rip-off, tip-off or judicious use of common-sense wisdom?

Prior to the sixteenth century and the creation of precise if inhibiting forms of musical notation, musicians knew by heart their body of work, as needs would anyone else who might have sought to replicate them. So, was the humming of a tune picked up from a wandering minstrel an early form of bootlegging or an unqualified and unconditional expression of respect for its creator and joy in its creation? We can freely whistle a blackbird’s song if we have the ear for such musical complexity. Is that, then, an act of bootlegging? Meanwhile, the blackbird sings on regardless, and another dusk draws a close to another day.

It was in the early sixteenth century that what was possibly the first documented act of musical bootlegging was made by the fourteen-year-old proto-punk, Amadeus Mozart. On a visit to St Peter’s, Rome, he heard Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ being performed and later, in the privacy of his lodgings, he transcribed it note for note. Admittedly, on finishing the transcription he had to make a brief return to St Peter’s to check its accuracy, but his achievement surely must stand as confirmation of the power of the mind left to its own devices, and as a major indictment of those who nowadays see Google as being synonymous with memory. More seriously, however, through Papal decree it was in those days forbidden, under threat of excommunication, to transcribe the ‘Miserere’ or to perform it anywhere outside the Vatican. However, on hearing of Mozart’s achievement, the resident Pope was so impressed that he summoned him to the Vatican and showered him with great praises for his youthful genius. The ‘Miserere’, as liberated by Mozart, has since become one of the most universally loved choral works in the classical canon, and one is forced to wonder what might have been its fate without his intervention. One also wonders whether other works of such profound beauty are still confined to the shady vaults of the Vatican alongside other possibly darker secrets.

So, where does all this take us? What on earth has Crass got to do with the Vatican, or Monseigneur Steve Ignorant with the Pope or, indeed, bootlegging with righteous common-sense sharing of common wisdom? The simple answer is all or nothing.

I had, perhaps, hoped to write a brief history of bootlegging, ignoring its alcoholic connections in favour of its more cultural implications. I had intended to begin by citing the first ever performance of Dylan Thomas’ ‘Under Milk Wood’ and the almost complete live solos of Charlie Parker, both of which having entered the public domain in the form of bootlegs, but, as is a common trait of mine, I chose a more universal approach.

But let me now maybe get to the point. Whereas piracy or outright theft is more often than not driven only by a desire for personal profit, and offers little or no creative addition, bootlegs are more commonly acts of love practised by fans who quite rightly want to carry away a memento from a gig which otherwise might be destined to become no more than a faded memory. In this respect, I have always supported and encouraged bootleggers and have been able to thoroughly enjoy listening to their offerings of which, in the case of Crass, there are many. As I see it, if a band chooses not to record their own concerts for the benefit of those who might have been unable to be there, then they really have little or no reason to complain when others choose to do it in their stead: it’s not as if any real theft has taken place. On the one hand we can react with elitist, separatist ideas demanding ownership of a recording which is not ours, or we can accept a wider picture which recognises rights with which we might not all be comfortable, but which, without doubt, express a true democracy, and I do not mean here the political so-called democracy from which we are all in some way forced to suffer, and which I see as a mere extension of ancient feudalism.

When Justin of Cold Spring Records wrote to me seeking permission to release a series of Crass bootlegs, I replied that essentially it wasn’t anything to do with me, him or indeed anyone else, because, in my understanding of it, bootlegs are up for grabs. I might have been Crass’ lyricist and drummer, Justin might be a label owner and someone or other must be the sound recordist bootlegger and, in all probability, ne’er the twain shall meet. However, Justin persisted, and whereas in no way could I have been persuaded to directly endorse any Crass bootleg, still less give it ‘official’ approval, I suggested to him that I could write the essay that you are currently reading, explaining my overall feelings on the subject which, hopefully, I have successfully done. It’s my way of saying ‘yup, it’s fine by me’, and if others don’t like it, then that’s also fine by me.

There are, no doubt, those who might object both to Justin’s actions and my tacit support of them, but, frankly, I don’t really care. Crass happened thirty years back and the party was great while it lasted. Since that time there’s been a fair amount of revisionist reinterpretation of what was or wasn’t the nature of that party, but if anything can recapture its true radical vibrancy, it must be the bootlegs of the period. In a studio recording, we (Crass) were firmly in control, whereas at gigs we were out there and up against the wall with our terror, jubilance, bullshit and profundity in equal dosage. So, while the studio recordings were a record of how Crass might have wanted it to appear, the bootlegs are documentation of the times as they were, warts’n’all – one big crazy gathering of giggers, liggers, dreamers, schemers, bums and beats’n’bootleggers alike. Crass? You bet.

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Smash the system? For sure, but of all the systems that are worthy of consideration for such intervention, it surely must be our own ideas that require the most attention. If we can’t change those, we can’t change anything.

SUPERSUCKERS may be a man down but they’re still very much in the saddle as they unveil the title track from their forthcoming country album.

The Arizona via Washington band had long planned to make a country studio album, having already released the live Must’ve Been High country set in ’97 and recorded with WILLIE NELSON and STEVE EARLE. Now Holdin’ The Bag is finally due for release on 16 October on Acetate Records.

The whole thing could’ve been derailed when it was announced in June that frontman Eddie Spaghetti was to receive treatment for cancer, which is currently ongoing.

Of the title track, Eddie says: “It always surprises me how good a song can turn out to be. When I was making this one up, it never occurred to me that it would be the opening track or the title track of the record. I just thought it was cool that I got the word ‘befuddled’ in there! But this one is an instant classic, picking up where Must’ve Been High left off.

“And, in light of all the shit that has happened to me this year, it carries a lot of weight as well. Perhaps the best song I ever wrote.”

Not ones to let a thing like cancer stand in his way, Eddie expects to have the Supersuckers back on the road come September.

LA ska-punks THE INTERRUPTERS have a new video for the single ‘Take Back The Power’ which they’re launching exclusively through Vive Le Rock! tonight!

‘Take Back The Power’ is the opening cut from their self-titled debut album which is out now through Hellcat Records.

The band are touring across Europe all Summer, playing headline shows and supporting BAD RELIGION, LESS THAN JAKE and MAD CADDIES. They played Boomtown Fair in Winchester last week. The remaining dates are….

THE BOYS release their third promo video from their critically acclaimed Punk Rock Menopause album today. ‘1976’ is directed by award-winning documentary/TV director Mark Stokes and includes footage of The Boys from their album launch party at London’s Jazz Cafe along with previously unseen footage of the 1977 Mont De Marson Festival etc. You can watch an exclusive sneak preview of the video here.Last month The Boys also released a live album, Undercover – Live in China, which was recorded secretly in January 2015 after they were banned from playing live by the Chinese government.

First Lady of the Medway garage-punk scene HOLLY GOLIGHTLY returns this week with her first new solo album in eleven years!

Slowtown Now! is out on vinyl, CD and download through Damaged Goods on Friday 21 August, with a limited edition seven-inch of ‘Seven Wonders’ released a week later. You can listen to ‘Seven Wonders’ here.

Holly initially came to prominence at the start of the 90s fronting BILLY CHILDISH and THEE HEADCOATS’ all-girl splinter group THEE HEADCOATEES, Holly released her first solo album in 1995, going on to collaborate with the likes of THE WHITE STRIPES, ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT and THE GREENHORNES and featuring on the soundtrack to the JIM JARMUSCH movie Broken Flowers.

Domiciled in the US for several years, where she’s been playing back-porch blues and Americana with Lawyer Dave as HOLLY GOLIGHTLY & THE BROKEOFFS, Holly recently returned to the UK and East London’s Gizzard Studios to record Slowtown Now! with legendary producer Ed Deegan (The Fall, Billy Childish, Stiv Cantarelli) and a band that included Headcoats and LEN BRIGHT COMBO drummer Bruce Brand, NICK LOWE bassist Matt Radford and guitarist/keyboard-player Bradley Burgess.